Ciitizen, a tech startup focused building easy-to-share digital health records, has raised $17 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with additional participation from Verily and Section 32. With these investments, Andreessen Horowitz’s Bio fund General Manager Vijay Pande will be joining Ciitizen’s board of directors, while Section 32's Michael Pellini and Verily’s Andy Harrison will also be joining as observers.

The latest funding comes roughly half a year after the startup raised $3 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz.

Ciitizen describes itself on its website as "a platform that helps you securely collect and share your personal health data.” The company aims to solve the many problems of healthcare data sharing and lack of interoperability by creating a patient-centered medical record.

Also of note is the pedigree of its leaders. Anil Sethi, cofounder and CEO, previously founded Gliimpse, a small health data startup which was acquired by Apple in August 2016, where he stayed for some time. Brian Carlsen, cofounder and director of clinical informatics, also worked at Apple as a special projects lead, while Deven McGraw, the former deputy director for health information at HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, serves the company as its general counsel and chief regulatory officer.

What it’s for

Ciitizen wrote in its announcement that it will be using the new funding to continue building its platform and buff its commercial efforts. Additionally, cofounder and COO Premal Shah said in a statement that the company was “aggressively hiring to support release of products in partnership with select healthcare stakeholders that will immediately benefit patients — all driven by obtaining and organizing a patient's health data.”

Market snapshot

Ciitizen faces stiff competition from its past — AKA, Apple’s own personal health record feature, Health Records. The feature came out of beta last March, with Apple announcing in August that more than 75 hospitals were already using the system.

Others in the personal health record space include RDMD, a platform looking to leverage personal health records to accelerate clinical research of rare diseases, and mobile record maker ChartSpan.

On the record

"The continued support from Andreessen Horowitz reaffirms the rapid progress we have already made and further validates our potential to significantly impact healthcare globally. Adding Section 32 and Verily to our effort further enhances our ability to transform the way patients engage with their health data," Sethi said in a statement. "Vijay (Pande) continues to set the standard in health-tech investing. Michael (Pellini) is a proven operator and leader, first as president and COO of Clarient and then as CEO of Foundation Medicine. Together with Andy (Harrison), they share our commitment to working on behalf of patients — ciitizens — to advance healthcare."